Austrian-born conservatory-trained pianist Josef Zawinul (1932) emigrated to the United States in 1958 and joined Cannonball Adderley's quintet in 1962, rapidly
becoming one of the most respected hard-bop pianists.
After the
tentative Money In The Pocket (february 1966), featuring Zawinul on piano, Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Joe Henderson and Clifford Jordan on tenor sax, Pepper Adams on baritone sax, Sam Jones and Bob Cranshaw on bass, Louis Hayes and Roy McCurdy on drums, and
the prophetic The Rise And Fall Of The Third Stream (october 1967), mostly composed by tenor saxophonist William Fischer,
Zawinul contributed to the electronic period of Miles Davis, and penned some of
his best compositions, such as Pharaoh's Dance on Bitches Brew (1969).
Zawinul de facto coined the atmospheric sound of Weather Report with Zawinul (august 1970), featuring trumpeter Woody Shaw, soprano saxophonist Earl Turbinton,
pianist Herbie Hancock and bassist Miroslav Vitous.
The ten-minute Double Image and the 14-minute Doctor Honoris Causa
bridged hard-bop and jazz-rock, bypassing cool jazz and free jazz.
Zawinul perfected his vision of the keyboards in the electronic age
on the Weather Report albums.
He and Annette Peacock can be credited with introducing electric and electronic keyboards into the jazz mainstream.
He articulated a (swinging) vision for electronic jazz on his solo album
Dialects (1985), mostly recorded by himself.

After leaving Weather Report, Zawinul formed the
Zawinul Syndicate and veered towards danceable world-music on
The Immigrants (1988),
Black Water (1989),
Lost Tribes (1992).
My People (1996).

Zawinul also composed
Stories of the Danube (composed in 1993, recorded in february 1996), a symphony, and
Mathausen (composed in 1998), a memorial for the victims of the Holocaust,